1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that can communicate with a peripheral apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A peripheral apparatus control system enables a user of a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as “PC”) to access a peripheral apparatus via an appropriate interface, such as USB, Ethernet, or wireless LAN. This kind of control system can be effectively used for various users in their houses and offices. An example of the peripheral apparatus is, for example, a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a scanner, a digital camera, or a multifunction peripheral.
Windows 7 (product name), which is provided by Microsoft Corporation, includes newly introduced functions to manage peripheral apparatuses connected to a PC. For example, “Devices and Printers” is a window that displays a peripheral apparatus (or a plurality of apparatuses) connected to the PC. “Device Stage” (international registered trademark) is a visual screen that displays a link to a unique application or service provided by each apparatus. Therefore, users can easily access various functions and services relating to respective peripheral apparatuses.
Conventionally, transmission of a print instruction from a Windows® application to a peripheral apparatus (e.g., a printer, a scanner, a copying machine, or a multifunction peripheral) is performed according to the following procedure. More specifically, the procedure includes selecting an apparatus as an output destination and causing the selected apparatus to perform printing, as processing to be executed after an application is launched by a user.
For example, a technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-85132 can be used to select an apparatus as an output destination. More specifically, an information processing apparatus can communicate with a plurality of printers. When the information processing apparatus transmits generated print data to a printer selected from the plurality of printers, the processing procedure includes acquiring a status of a predetermined printer and switching a registered default printer to another printer based on the acquired status of the predetermined printer. The switching processing can be executed by referring to priority information of each printer serving as a default printer.
The processing procedure further includes detecting a printer whose status is changed, determines whether the detected printer is a printer having a highest priority, and performing default printer switching processing based on a determination result.
In a case where a linked application is launched from the “Device Stage” screen, printing is executed according to a printing procedure different from the conventional procedure.    1) The “Device Stage” screen is displayed via the “Devices and Printers” screen. Therefore, a user first selects a specific apparatus on the “Devices and Printers” screen, and then the user opens the “Device Stage” screen and launches the application.    2) Subsequently, the user tries to execute printing using the launched application. In this case, an apparatus intended by the user may not be selected even thought the apparatus is once selected on the “Devices and Printers” screen.
More specifically, in a case where printing is instructed from an application, a default apparatus (i.e., usually used printer) previously set for the PC is brought into an initially selected state. Therefore, in a case where an apparatus associated with the “Device Stage” screen is not the predetermined apparatus preliminarily set for the system, an apparatus that is not intended by a user may be initially set for the system even after the user has recognized completion of the selection of a desired apparatus on the “Devices and Printers” screen. As a result, the user is required to repeat the above-described apparatus selection. Therefore, the user interface is inferior in operability.